Oklahoma football: Sooners seldom stumble in season starters
By Chip Rouse
When the 2019 Oklahoma football season kicks off on Sunday night at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, the Sooners will be sporting a No. 4 national ranking and a 13-game winning streak in home openers.
The last time the Sooners lost a season opener at home was in 2005 against TCU. The Horned Frogs outgained and outplayed OU on both sides of the ball and turned four Sooner turnovers into a 17-10 opening shocker. Three seasons ago, Houston played the spoiler role, handing the then third-ranked Sooners a 33-23 defeat.
The big number Oklahoma is gunning for in this, the 125th season of Oklahoma football, is the number eight, which would represent another national championship and the first one since 2000, in Bob Stoops’ second year at the Sooner helm,19 seasons ago.
Here are a dozen other compelling numbers as reminders of what’s been and what’s ahead as we get settled in for what promises to be another exciting and insatiable season of Sooner football:
.724 — Oklahoma’s all-time winning percentage (896-325-53), the fifth best in college football.
4 — The Sooners have been ranked seventh or better in 15 of the last 19 Associated Press preseason polls. More importantly, however, they have finished the year ranked in the top five in each of the last four seasons:
8 — Number of major statistical categories that the OU offense led the nation in last season: scoring (45.3), total offense (559.3 yards per game), yards gained per play (8.6), scrimmage TDs (308), passing efficiency (189.5), completion percentage (69.2), yards per pass attempt (10.7), passing TD/interception ratio (5.7).
8.6 — Yards gained per play last season by the Oklahoma offense in 2018, a new FBS single-season record.
10 — Of the 43 players from the state of Texas on the 2019 Oklahoma roster, 10 are from the Houston area, including starting quarterback Jalen Hurts.
12 — Number of Oklahoma Big 12 championships since 2000, including four in a row.
16 — Oklahoma is the only FBS team to post 16 seasons of double-digit wins since 2000. The Sooners lead the nation with 39 seasons of at least 10 wins.
24 — Wins by Lincoln Riley in his first two seasons as head coach, the most by any coach in college football in the last 125 years.
46-8 — Oklahoma’s combined record the last four seasons, fourth best in college football behind Alabama (55-4), Clemson (55-4), Ohio State (48-6).
64/60 — The Sooners return 64 percent of their rushing yards and 60 percent of their passing yards from last season.
73 — Oklahoma touchdowns of 40-plus yards since Lincoln Riley was named the offensive coordinator in 2015. That ranks No. 1 in college football during that time frame.
124 — Oklahoma is expecting its 124th consecutive sellout at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Sunday’s season opener against the University of Houston.
Statistical information that appears in this article was sourced from the Oklahoma Football Game Notes for Week 1 of the 2019 season.